Guide

Pairings for a school golf match: the rules coaches use

Pairings decide more about a youth match than the course does. Get them right and the round runs itself. Get them wrong and you find out on the third hole, from a parent. This is the checklist most school coaches work through, and the arithmetic that sits under it. For the softer side of it, see how coaches put together groups.

First, the arithmetic

Groups of four are the usual target, with threes where the numbers don’t divide. Five works if the course allows it and the pace can stand it. Twosomes are best avoided. A twosome is often one kid and one scorekeeper, and it plays faster than everyone behind it.

The number of groups is the number of players divided by four, rounded up. On a shotgun start that is also how many holes you need, so check it against the course before you go further. See scoring a shotgun or staggered start.

Rules, and preferences

It helps to sort what you weigh into two piles. A rule is something the match can’t go ahead without. A preference is something you want and will give up if the numbers say no. Which pile each one goes in depends on your league and your kids.

Usually rules:

• Group size, within whatever the league and the course allow.
• An adult with every group to keep the card. Many leagues count on a parent being with each group.
• Someone who has played the course in each group, so somebody knows where the next tee is.
• League lineup rules, such as a girl in the lineup, or your top two always playing.

Usually preferences:

• Top players together, so they push each other, or spread out so every group has a steady score.
• Girls together, or spread out, depending on the league.
• Nobody new to the course on their own.
• Balanced groups, so no group is all beginners.
• Mixed schools in each group when other teams are playing.

When the rules can’t all be met

Count before you start moving names. Four groups need four experienced players and four adults. If you have three of either, no arrangement fixes that, and the honest answer is to find a fourth adult or play three bigger groups. Coaches lose most of their time trying to arrange their way out of a shortage that was arithmetic all along.

Write it down

For each group: the players, the hole it starts on, and who keeps the card. Send it the night before. Bring a printed copy for the first tee.

How the GolfJot pairing builder works

In the coach area you mark who is available and turn each rule on or off. The builder knows the ones above: groups of three to five, family with every group, an experienced player in every group, top players together, girls together, nobody new to the course on their own, the remaining groups balanced so their combined scores are close, and the lineup rules about keeping your top two and playing a girl.

It counts first. If a rule can’t be met with the players you have, it says which one and why, instead of quietly breaking it. Then it suggests groups, with an account of which rules each arrangement meets. Ask for another arrangement as often as you like, and move anyone by hand. Each group shows the hole it starts on.

When you’re happy, publish. Each scorekeeper types the match’s code and taps the group’s starting hole, and the card on their phone has that group on it.